The Patient Wren had surveyed for eleven turns when it found the world every settler in the Reach dreams of.

Dessa Oru, the youngest reader on the team, kept the scans open on her wrist long after she should have closed them. Seventy percent water. Moving plates. A star that had not flickered in four billion years.

“Perfect,” said Reckoner Varga, leaning over Dessa’s shoulder. “Water, warmth, a good heavy moon to keep the seasons steady. If you sat down to design a world for living things, you’d draw this one.”